Práticas de ensino e aprendizagem de matemática e tecnologia : um olhar para as especificidades da educação de jovens e adultos (EJA)

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the technology potential, especially regarding the learning process of Mathematics. We focused on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and on the students at the Adult Basic Education (ABE). Taking into account the digital culture immersion the society is nowadays, the research aimed to study, to investigate and to observe the contributions the ICTs may present to the learning process of exploratory and investigative Mathematics' tasks for students at the ABE. This is a qualitative, hermeneutic and collaborative study, and it presents some similarities to action research. The study involved twenty-five students from three different Elementary School classes (6th, 7th and 9th grades) from a government program called Proeja (National Integration Program of the Vocational Education into the Basic Education at the Adult Basic Education). The actions and reflections were guided by the following question: Which pedagogical contributions the teaching proposal using technological resources may offer to the Mathematics' teaching and learning process of students at the ABE? As observing the possible benefits and challenges of using technology resources at the ABE classes, regarding the needs and specific characteristics of this kind of teaching, it was aimed to investigate the potentials of educational technology for the Mathematics' teaching and learning process at the ABE; to evaluate the benefits it may bring to the teaching and learning process of exploratory and investigative Mathematics' tasks; to offer the Mathematical community teaching techniques that evaluate the possibility of developing critical mathematical thinking on the ABE students. To achieve the goal of this study, it was designed two teaching proposals. One of the proposals focus the contents Area and Perimeter and it used only the ICTs as pedagogical resources. The other one approached the contents Symmetry and Angle and it used the ICTs and the Plane Mirror. The hypothesis assumed was that the integration between these technological artefacts could contribute to the teaching and learning process. During the field research, we used the following strategies to produce data: questionnaires, audio and video recording, semi-structured interviews, records of the teaching proposals developed, and field notes taken by the teacher researcher. The theoretical basis came from authors that performed research about the related themes. The study analysis had a hermeneutic nature. This characteristic originated by the information that emerged from the data collected during the research, but only the data that presented elements to add evidence that could answer the investigation's question. Three analysis categories were identified: 1) Feelings aspects of ABE students; 2) Emerging Mathematics and Technological Knowledge and 3) Reflex of the Technology. The second category had two subsections: a) Students' Emerging Knowledge and b) Teacher Researcher's Emerging Knowledge. The results indicated that the use of technology, especially the ICTs, helped the teaching and learning process of Mathematics when presenting exploratory and investigative tasks to the ABE classes. It is expected that this research may contribute to Mathematics teacher's education and to the teaching and learning process of ABE students.